UPI Almanac for Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Today is Wednesday, April 30, the 120th day of 2014 with 245 days to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars and Mercury.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1777; Hungarian composer Franz Lehar, who wrote the operetta "The Merry Widow," in 1870; actors Eve Arden in 1908 and Cloris Leachman in 1926 (age 87); singer Willie Nelson in 1933 (age 81); actor Gary Collins in 1938; actors Burt Young in 1940 (age 71) and Jill Clayburgh in 1944; singer Bobby Vee in 1943 (age 71); Sweden's King Carl Gustaf XVI and U.S. Olympic champion swimmer Don Schollander, both in 1946 (age 68); actor Perry King in 1948 (age 66); film director Jane Campion ("The Piano") in 1954 (age 60); basketball Hall of Fame member Isiah Thomas in 1961 (age 53); actor Kirsten Dunst in 1982 (age 32); and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 1959 (age 55).

On this date in history:

In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

In 1803, the United States more than doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase. It obtained all French territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

In 1812, Louisiana entered the union as the 18th U.S. state.

In 1927, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first movie personalities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on television when he was shown on opening day at the New York World's Fair.

In 1945, the burned body of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found in a bunker in the ruins of Berlin.

In 1948, 21 countries of the Western Hemisphere formed the Organization of American States.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship title after he refused to be drafted into the U.S. military.

In 1975, South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam. (The communists occupied Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.)

In 1993, Monica Seles was stabbed and wounded by a self-described fan Steffi Graf during a tennis match in Germany.

In 2002, the United States sent 1,000 more troops to eastern Afghanistan along the Pakistan border to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida forces from regrouping.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his government wouldn't support the proposed "road map" peace plan until Palestinians stopped anti-Israel violence. But he said he favored creation of a Palestinian state.

In 2005, the bodies of 113 people, nearly all women and children, were found in a mass grave in southern Iraq.

In 2006, rebel factions in Sudan rejected a peace agreement in the Darfur conflict. Officials estimated the fighting had killed at least 180,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

In 2009, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection in a key move of a restructuring plan backed by the Obama administration.

In 2011, a NATO airstrike in Tripoli killed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son and three of his grandchildren but Gadhafi and his wife escaped injury.

In 2012, Israel began construction of a wall that would be 23 feet high and less than a mile long on its border with Lebanon. Security officials said the concrete wall would protect residents in the Matulla area from sniper fire from nearby Lebanese villages.

In 2013, Queen Beatrix, the 75-year-old monarch of the Netherlands, signed a formal declaration abdicating in favor of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, 46, who became the country's first king in 123 years.

A thought for the day: "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." -- Dr. Seuss

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